How to Become a TravelingMom

The TravelingMom Writers Network is a vibrant, supportive community of travel writers and social media influencers who are moms and grandmoms, sisters, daughters, and significant others. We are always happy to consider quality writers who are referred by current members of the TravelingMom Influencer Network. We are looking for Traveling Moms who share our passion for travel, families, social media and inspiring others to travel, with and without their kids.

Becoming a TravelingMom Writer, Phase I

The TravelingMom Influencer Network is a tight-knit group of travel writers, bloggers and social media influencers. We only accept referrals from existing members of the TravelingMom Network.

If you would like to be referred, ask the TravelingMom to do an e-intro for you to our Operations Manager, at deb@travelingmom.com.

Tell Deb about your life as a traveling mom and include links to at least three posts or clips previously published elsewhere. Include relevant information about your social media stature—a link to your own site, your Klout score, number of Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest followers, and number of Facebook and Google+ friends/fans. Tell her which TravelingMom niche you think might be right for you. (A list of our current TMOM writers and their niche/writer names is here.)

Once the TravelingMom editorial team has had a chance to look over all of that, she will let you know if you can move to:

Becoming a TravelingMom Writer, Phase II

Write one original post (800-1200 words) that would naturally fall within the TravelingMom niche you’re proposing to fill. After discussing the first story with the TravelingMom editorial team, a second and third guest post will be requested.

Here’s what we look for in a TravelingMom post:1) A BFF voice. Tell us about the topic the way you would tell your best friend. What works? What doesn’t? What are your insider tips? What do you wish you had known before you went to that destination or bought that product? What did your kids like/not like about it and what would have made a difference for them? Our motto is “We’ve been there.” We want the posts to reflect that.2) 800-1200 words. Include a summary/teaser paragraph at the top of the post giving readers a synopsis of what they will find if they read on. Your lede must stand on its own.3) Minimum of 3 photos and a Pin. The main photo must be 1118×653 horizontal. Other photos should be 750 wide. Include a caption and photo credit for each photo. Name the photos after the topic or destination with the number/order you want them to appear in the post (e.g. New-York-Subway-1, New-York-Subway-2). Note that we can only run original photos taken by you or given to you by the destination or company you are covering in the post. We cannot run photos that were downloaded from the web without the express written permission of the photographer. The pinnable image should be 750×1100 vertical. Better yet, add some words and turn it into a Pin. All other photos must be 750 pixels wide.4) At least 2 links to other posts on TravelingMom. You may also include external links to the destination, hotel or product or to your own site.5) Writer bio. This should be 2-3 sentences long and may include a link to your personal site. (This will run at the bottom of the first three posts, which will run as guest posts. If/when you join the TravelingMom Influencer Network, the posts will be shifted to your profile.)6) Short sentences, short paragraphs and subheads every 2-3 paragraphs. Use the subheads to reinforce your SEO keywords.7) A disclosure. If you are writing about something you got comped or at a reduced rate in return for a review, it must be disclosed under FTC rules. We use our own disclosure wording, so just note in the word doc you send if the post needs a disclosure.8) An SEO-friendly headline, SEO keywords, and metadata. That’s the brief description of the post that will appear on the Google search page and on Facebook when you promote the post.

Where to Send Your Submissions

Once you have the go-ahead from Deb, you may email your sample post and photos to Destinations Editor Christine Tibbetts at tibbetts1@bellsouth.net with this subject line: Sample post from *your name here*.

Our editorial team will look the post over and get back to you with suggestions. We hope you will appreciate having a team of editors to help perfect your posts before we upload them to TravelingMom as guest posts.

Becoming a TravelingMom Writer, Phase III

This is where you prove your social media chops, which is just as important at TravelingMom as your travel expertise and your reporting and writing abilities. Start promoting your guest posts via your network. While this is not the only reason we might ask you to become a permanent member of the TravelingMom Writer Network, readers’ response to your posts matters. Do the posts get hits? Comments?

After your third guest post is published, send an email to Deb (deb@travelingmom.com) with the links to your three guest posts and links to where you have promoted them. She will then get you set up as a full member of the TravelingMom writer network.

Promoting your own work and the work of the other writers in the network is what the TravelingMom Influencer Network is all about. After all, isn’t that why you wanted to join a strong, supportive writer network in the first place?

1 Comment

I would love to join you as another traveling mom! I have been traveling with my chickadees) now 8 and 10 since they were 6 weeks old. I use my background in education – 15 years of teaching elementary school to find what works for kids. I have published a travel guide to Rome for kids

and many ebooks. These books are designed to give kids information on the sites and background along with activities for keeping kids engaged while visiting museums like the Louvre, the Prado, and the Galleria Borghese, but also to keep them busy on the long flights and train rides to get there.

About The Author

Cindy Richards
is a Pulitzer Prize nominated journalist who serves as the Editor-in-Chief of TravelingMom.com. She also is the mom of two terrific teens who have traveled with her since that first, fateful plane ride when one preschooler discovered a barf bag in his seat pocket and his sister, finding none in hers, demanded, "I want a barf bag too!" She has been a reporter, editor and columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune, an editor at Chicago Parent and Catalyst Chicago and an instructor in the graduate school at Northwestern's prestigious Medill School of Journalism.